What is unity? What does this small word contain that has such powerful abilities to make peace in the whole world?
In Hebrew the word for unity is “achdut.” It is part of our daily prayers and in our holy books. It’s part of our everyday life, and it is what will bring the final redemption soon.
What unites us as a family, as a people and as a country?
Why is it so simple to say unity and yet so hard to achieve?
As a parent I can express my wish and strong desire to always want my children to be united.
As a Jew I can express my great desire to want all the Jewish people to unite and worship G-d with all their hearts.
As a Jew living in Israel I can express my burning desire that this whole country be united and focused on the same Jewish morals and values. Achieving unity is so difficult for us, because it is very hard for us to see beyond our own selves.
In the time of our forefather Yaakov, his sons were united when it came to releasing their brother Benjamin from Egypt. And that unity made them stronger than any army.
It is also known that on Mount Sinai when we received the holy Torah, we were so united that the whole episode is written in the bible in the singular form as if only one person was there at the time.
When couples marry, we wish them to be united in their marriage. In the class room the teacher, of course, wants unity amongst his pupils, and in every office the manager wishes to have unity among his workers.
Why is this such a hard attribute to attain?
Why is it so hard for us to not only get along with someone who is different than we are, but to actually be close and have unity with them.
Many people can be good people, many can also be very good observant Jews and G-d fearing people and many can even be great charismatic leaders, wonderful Rabbis and scholars, however as long as these wonderful qualities do not unite the people around them, then they have not yet reached their goal.
In order to pray in a synagogue there needs to be at least 10 men, and it doesn’t matter if these men are observant or not, so long as they are Jewish, they count in the minyan.
G-d does not look upon us and say which sect in Judaism is the right way: Ashkenazi, or Sephardi, Chassidic or Litvak. G-d doesn’t ask from what country you came, what language you speak or what is the color of your skin. What G-d wants so badly and would bring the final redemption for us immediately, is to see all of his children unite. Not fight over everything. G-d want us to love one another despite all the differences. Our faces are all different our hair our fingers our handprints. G-d made each one of us so special. He is our father and wants to see his children loving one another because we are all one family.
When someone makes a party or a special event they make sure that all the family comes. Just imagine if everyone gets along with each other. What would an event like that look like, as opposed a to what really goes on today. How much love and happiness do we really have today? How much building and success could be achieved with so much love and acceptance. We must take to heart these words and thoughts in a time when there is so much dispute, anger and division amongst our people and nation.
We are right before the festive holiday of lights, Chanukah. The Maccabees were not very many in number, however they were united themselves, and above all with the almighty. We must remember that we are soldiers in the army of Hashem. We want to be like the sons of Mattityahu who were united with each other and believed only in the power of G-d to help them win. Let us all join forces in all avenues of life and let G-d see us once again like on Mount Sinai as one people and one nation, with one desire to worship the one and only G-d in his holy temple today. Amen.